google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday, Feb 16, 2008 Tom Pruce

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Feb 16, 2008

Saturday, Feb 16, 2008 Tom Pruce

Theme: NONE ( It seems that all Saturday puzzles are themeless).

Ouch! Got stumped immediately. Sophism, Occlude. German sub (U-BOAT), old, ugly woman (BELDAME), Migrating herring (ALEWIFE). All too heavy for me to whack.

Knew all too well the mug of Shennen Doherty, who liked to fight with the likes of Tara Reid and Paris Hilton, over some scumbag/sex tape stuff. But I did not know how to spell her damned name. By the way, Doherty can also be clued as Babyshambles singer Pete, supermodel Kate Moss's boyfriend, or ex-boyfriend, if you care to know.

Anyway, I probably filled in 3/5 of the puzzles, then I started googling with a vengeance!

Across:

1A: Plausible but fallacious argument: SOPHISM. Fallacy!

8A: Cause to become closed: OCCLUDE. This word is a stranger to me.

15A: Corrode: EAT INTO

16A: Change tags: RELABEL. I put Reprice first.

17A: Vandalized: TRASHED

16A: Like reserved seats: PRESOLD

19A: PC command: SAVE. I was trapped by the abbreviation of PC. Figured it had to be DELE, or CTRL, or any shortened computer key.

20A: Bad actor: HAM

25A: Old, ugly woman: BELDAME. Brutal. Never heard of this word. Hag, yes!

27A: Cigarette negative: TAR. I put in ASH.

28A: Secreted: HID. I was thinking of the body fluid secretion. Never knew that you could use "secret" as a verb to mean conceal.

29A: Singing plain songs: INTONING

31A: Praises: EXALTS

33A: Acted like a bully: HECTORED. The utter hubris of Rumsfeld!

37A: Olin of "the Ninth Gate": LENA. She is in Chocolat with Juliette Binoche. Wonderful movie.

38A: Cincinnati player: RED

39A: Denuded: BARE

40A: Flapping more freely: FLOPPIER Don't like the cluing on this one, the "ing" is misguiding. Flappier would be fine, or Saggier, Droopier.

43A: Satellite of Neptune: TRITON. Or Sea God. Greek Mythology.

45A: Cone bearer: PINE TREE

47A: Begley and Begley: EDS. I like the Begley and Asner clue more.

53A: Silk trap: WEB

55A: Sale-tag disclaimer: AS IS

57A: Stretchable: ELASTIC

59A: Period from request to delivery: TIME LAG. I was thinking of Process. But it did not fit.

63A: Put up again: REBUILT

64A: Migrating herring: ALEWIFE. Or a woman who operates a alehouse.

65A: Model positions: STANCES

66A: Keystone Kops creator: SENNETT (Mack). Not my "King of Comedy."

Down Entry:

1D: Sun's fall: SET

2D: Thole insert: OAR Thole is "a pin, or either of two pins, inserted into a gunwale to provide a fulcrum for an oar."

3D: School grp.: PTA

4D: Snake speech: HISS

5D: Live in: INHABIT

6D: Cat or Ray: STEVENS. Knew neither of them. Cat is here, Ray is here.

7D: Early Ford: MODEL T

8D: Left parentless: ORPHANED

9D: Fired clay: CERAMIC

10D: Merciful: CLEMENT.

12D: German sub: U-BOAT

13D: Perry Mason's street: DELLA. Erle Stanley Gardner wrote many detective books under various pseudonyms.

14D: Church leader: ELDER

22D: Knickknack spot: SHELF.

23D: Video image unit: PIXEL

24D: Hersey's bell town: ADANO John Hersey book: A Bell for Adano.

26D: Actress Shannen: DOHERTY

27D: Mongolia desert: GOBI. Techniqually, Gobi desert covers northern part of China and southern part of Mongolia. Asian desert would be a perfect clue!

32D: Northern Scandinavian: LAPP. Never heard of it before. Here is the definition: "a member of a Finnic people of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and adjacent regions."

34D: Time charges: RATES

35D: Wear away: ERODE

36D: Compact: DENSE

38D: Returns the incumbent: REELECTS. Could not believe those crowds shouting "Four More Years" when Bush appeared on the Conservative PA Conference last week. Nuts!

41D: Like unlicensed TV Stations: PIRATIC.

42D: Banished: IN EXILE

43D: Pliable: TENSILE. New word to me.

44D: Course of physical training: REGIMEN

46D: Gaucho's lassos: RIATAS (sometimes it's REATAS)

48D: Water pitchers: EWERS

49D: Fill an empty flat: RELET

50D: Addis __, Eth.: ABABA

56D: Stitched: SEWN

58D: Start of a Day?: SUN (as in SUNDAY)

60D: Falsehood: LIE

61D: Astern: AFT

62D: Acquire: GET

Have a good weekend everyone.

C. C.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I get annoyed when the crossword clue word form does not match the answer. I think mercy equals clemency; merciful equals clement. Obviously clemency didn't work.

Ruth

Anonymous said...

Oh! Don't I feel stupid! I looked again, the clue was merciful--

Ruth

Zhouqin (C.C.) Burnikel said...

Ruth,

I did not quite get your point. The clue for 10D is "merciful", so CLEMENT looks right to me.

C.C.

Zhouqin (C.C.) Burnikel said...

I see!

I thought your paper made a mistake.

C.C.